Village Craftsmen

Marvin Howard, A Life Well Lived

May
21, 2013

Captain Marvin Wyche Howard (Sept. 11, 1897 – March 26, 1969)
was
just a week and a half old when a tropical storm battered Ocracoke
Island.

Gale force winds
reached the Outer Banks of North Carolina on September 22. Two days
earlier the storm had struck Tampa, Florida with torrential rains and
high winds that flooded streets, demolished buildings, and tore vessels
from their moorings.

According to "The New York Times," Sept. 25, 1897, p.5, col.3,
“The
storm raged off Hatteras with almost unabated fury from early Wednesday
morning [Sept. 22] until late Thursday night [Sept. 23] and the seas
ran higher than that have been encountered for years.”

In his 71+ years Marvin Howard was to witness many more hurricanes and
storms, both on Ocracoke and at sea.

Captain
Marvin W. Howard:
(Click on photo to view a larger image.)

The second child of Homer and Aliph O’Neal Howard, Marvin was
born into a seafaring family.

As a young man, Marvin’s father, Homer Howard, had served on
coastal schooners before joining the United States Life Saving Service
in the early 20th century. In 1883 Marvin’s grandfather,
James W.
Howard, had given up a life at sea to become keeper of the Cedar
Hammock Life Saving Station at the north end of Ocracoke Island, a
position he held until he retired in 1903.

By the turn of the twentieth century seafaring was a dwindling
vocation. Railroads, not schooners, were now transporting the majority
of cargo. Marvin, like most island teenagers of his generation, moved
to Philadelphia looking for work with the US Army Corps of Engineers.
He was just fifteen years old when he secured a position as a deckhand
aboard the four year old, 83’ derrick boat Rattler working the
Delaware River. With its on-board crane the Rattler lifted
heavy loads
between vessels and to and from docks.

Marvin describes his experience in an article he wrote almost four
decades later:

“I can think of nothing during my thirty-seven years away
from my
home of Ocracoke more pathetic…than when, as a boy, sharing
with
many others the fate of leaving Home, [I saw] the young men and old
alike, each spring, start their migration northward, [to try to] find a
job. [They would leave] their families, each with their luggage, and
very few dollars in their pockets, walk down the sandy roads, before
dawn, in the cold raw days of February and March, when the light of
cottages from early risers shined bright and clear, down to the fishing
wharves, where the daily mail boat left at 4 A.M.

“…These men were going off! Away – to
the far north
(for in those days Philadelphia or New York it seemed, was like ten
thousand miles) to look for work, going where it was even colder than
home, where if a job was found, they would remain for about eight or
nine months, or until cold fall when the icy blasts froze up the rivers
of the great industrial north, or fishing, on account of winter winds
and cold, ceased along the Atlantic Seaboard.”

Marvin continued this semi-annual migration for almost three years,
working for the Corps of Engineers and for the American Dredging
Company. Then he had a change of mind. Exactly one month after
Marvin’s 18th birthday (October 11, 1915) the 170 pound young
man
enlisted in the United States Navy at the Recruiting Station in
Philadelphia, declaring his occupation as
“mariner,” and
his date of birth as September 11, 1893, claiming to be 22 years old.
As an Apprentice Seaman he was granted $17.60 per month pay, and
immediately sent to the Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode
Island.

Europe had been at war since July, 1914. President Wilson was
determined that the United States should remain neutral, even after the
sinking of the Lusitania
in 1915. But concern and uneasiness always lay
beneath the surface. Marvin realized he might find himself overseas
after all.

Only one month after arriving in Newport Marvin was put in the hospital
for an unknown illness. By December he was back at the Training Station
where he remained until March, 1916.

In April Marvin began serving with 932 officers and other sailors on
the Naval Training Ship, U.S.S.
North Dakota, a 518’
Delaware-class dreadnought battleship fitted with 28 guns and two
torpedo tubes. The North
Dakota, along with other ships in the Atlantic
Fleet was engaged in intensive training in response to the escalating
threat of war.

A little more than a month later, in June, 1916, Marvin was transferred
to the U.S.S. Oklahoma,
a newly commissioned 583’ long battleship
with 864 officers and men, and carrying 31guns. In August he was again
hospitalized for two months¸ then, on his birthday,
reassigned to
the U.S.S. Davis,
a 315’ destroyer with nine guns and 12 torpedo
tubes. The Davis
was commissioned just days before, on October 5, 1916,
and had a complement of 99 officers and crew. Marvin remained on the Davis until his
discharge from the Navy on October 10, 1919.

Beginning in January of 1917 Germany had resumed unrestricted submarine
warfare. After the sinking of several US merchant vessels and
Germany’s attempt to enlist Mexico as an ally against the
United
States, President Wilson changed his mind and convinced the United
States Congress to declare war on Germany, which happened April 6,
1917.

Eighteen days after the declaration of war, the Davis set sail from
Boston harbor. She was one of the first destroyers to arrive in
European waters. On May 4 the Davis
arrived at Queenstown harbor (now
Cobh) on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. Employed primarily as
a patrol boat and escort vessel, the Davis accompanied
merchant convoys
along the coast of Ireland.

In late June, 1917 the Davis
escorted US Army transports carrying
members of the American Expeditionary Forces on their way to France
where they fought on the Western Front. Interestingly,
Marvin’s
older first cousin, Ira Thomas Wyche (1887-1981)[1], was a captain
(then major, and later lieutenant colonel) with the 60th Field
Artillery, American Expeditionary Forces, who fought alongside the
French and British in the St. Die sector of France.

While on patrol during 1917 and 1918 the Davis rescued
survivors of
several vessels torpedoed by German submarines, and on May 12, 1918
picked up 35 crew members of the sunken U-103 and conveyed them to
British authorities in Wales.

By June, 1918 Marvin had advanced to Gunner’s Mate 1st Class.
However, on September 21, 1918 his rating was reduced to
Gunner’s
Mate 2nd Class for “leaving post without
authority.” By the
first of December he had regained his 1st Class rating.

In November, 1918 Allied forces and Germany signed the Armistice that
ended the conflict in Europe. On December 13 the Davis was one of 28
destroyers and ten battleships that escorted the troop transport, USS
George Washington, carrying President Woodrow Wilson and
the American
representatives to the Paris Peace Conference, into Brest, France.

Marvin Wyche Howard was honorably discharged from the United States
Navy on October 10, 1919. His pay at discharge was $44.00 per month.

Service records indicate a dedicated and qualified seaman who earned
high marks from his superiors for “professional
qualifications,” “sobriety,” and
“obedience.” Other than once leaving his post
without
authority, Marvin’s records show a consistently
“clear
record” of no offenses or punishments. His performance of
duty is
listed as “reliable, very good.”

Marvin returned to Ocracoke after his discharge and tried his hand at
commercial fishing. This was also an opportunity for him to continue
courting his childhood sweetheart, Leevella Ethel Williams. On February
8, 1920 they were married by Rev. F. C. West in Leevella’s
home.

Less than a year later Marvin returned to Philadelphia with his new
bride, and enlisted in the US Army Corps of Engineers. He served as
“drag tender” (marine machinery mechanic) on the
dredge Manhattan.
He stayed on the Manhattan
until 1923, becoming Third
Mate.

Marvin and Leevella’s first child, Richard Olin Howard, was
born
July 8, 1921, in Morehead City, North Carolina, where Leevella had gone
to live with family friends, and to be close to a hospital.

Marvin rose steadily in the ranks. He spent four years on the dredge Absecon as Second
and First Mate. Later he shipped aboard the dredge Delaware as Second
Mate; and then on the dredge Comstock
as First Mate.

In 1933 he was transferred to the Mississippi River. In 1927 a major
flood (Herbert Hoover described it as “the greatest disaster
of
peace times in our history”) “overwhelmed
the levee
system throughout the lower Mississippi Valley, flooded 23,000 square
miles, forced 700,000 people from their homes, and destroyed about $400
million worth of property.”[2]

The Flood Control Act of 1928, which Congress enacted in response to
the great flood of 1927, authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
design and construct projects for the control of floods on the
Mississippi River and its tributaries. Maintenance of levees was
abandoned. Marvin Howard was made Master of the “Agitator
Unit,” which employed heavy duty submergible
“agitator
pumps” to manage floodways with a series of dams and
reservoirs.
Marvin remained there for three years.

Prior to Marvin’s transfer to Mississippi Leevella became
pregnant with their second child, and she moved to Black Mountain,
North Carolina to stay with islanders who had relocated there for
health reasons. Martha Dean Howard was born February 13, 1933.

By 1936 Marvin and his family were living in Florida. A family story
illustrates Marvin’s imperturbable supervisory style. Olin,
just sixteen years old, had taken the family car one night. He
returned home after dark and woke his father.

“Daddy, I’ve driven the car into the
river.”

“Well, go to bed now son,” his father advised him.
“We’ll take care of it in the morning. Just
don’t
tell your mother.”

In 1937 Marvin was again transferred to the sea-going hydraulic hopper
dredge Manhattan,
this time as Master. He remained with her until 1943.
He and his family were living in Norfolk, Virginia, in a section so
populated by islanders that it was dubbed “Little
Ocracoke.” Two years later the Manhattan was sent
to Galveston,
Texas. The Manhattan,
originally launched on July 9th, 1904, carried a
crew of 54 men and worked night and day dredging the port of Galveston.

The
Manhattan:
(Click on photo to view a larger image.)

Olin stayed in Norfolk to finish high school, but spent the
summer working in Galveston with his father on the Manhattan. Olin
was impressed that his father, who had dropped out of school at age
fifteen, was proficient in the use of logarithms for navigation. When
his son asked him, “How did you learn to do that?”
Marvin
replied, “I know a lot of things you don’t know I
know.”

The United States entered World War II December 8, 1942. In 1943 Marvin
was commissioned Major in the Army and took command of the dredge Chester Harding.
The Harding
and several other sea-going hopper dredges
were fitted with 3-inch deck guns and 20-millimeter antiaircraft guns,
and sent to Europe. Marvin, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, was
designated commodore (a senior U.S. military captain who commanded
squadrons of more than one vessel). He was the first Army officer to
become commodore of a fleet of merchant vessels, in this case four
dredges that crossed the Atlantic.

The Chester Harding
was a 289 foot long, 3,800 ton “trailing
suction hopper dredge” that was built in 1939 by Pusey
&
Jones, Shipbuilders in Philadelphia. Named for Chester Harding
(1866-1936), US Army Corps of Engineers officer and governor of the
Panama Canal Zone from 1917 to 1921, the dredge was sent to England to
assist Allied Forces in dredging the Thames and the strategic channels
surrounding the port of Liverpool.

The Chester Harding,
like most trailing suction hopper dredges (TSHD),
was fitted with two suction pipes that worked like vacuum cleaners when
their drag heads were lowered to the seabed and trailed behind the
vessel. The dredge spoil was loaded into the central
“hopper.” When full, the hopper was dumped, or
pumped out
at a disposal area.

When the war was over Marvin returned to his domestic duties with the
Corps of Engineers. For the next few years he and his family lived in
Lansdowne, Pennsylvania; Wilmington, Delaware; and New Jersey.

During his long career Marvin served on eleven different
dredges¸
and was master of four of them. He was sent to various ports in the
United States, and even to Mexico, to keep shipping channels and ports
navigable for large commercial and military vessels. His family often
moved with him, especially when he was assigned to locations for
lengthy periods of time.

Marvin retired from the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1951 after a
distinguished career. A 1945 internal document of the Philadelphia
District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(“Who’s Who in
the District”) described the “spic and span
condition of
[Marvin’s] ship,” and claimed that Marvin Howard
was
“the best dredge operator in America.”

After retirement Marvin and Leevella moved to Winston-Salem, North
Carolina to spend time with their daughter and her family. However,
Marvin and Leevella had always longed to return to their home on
Ocracoke Island. Immediately they made plans to have a modest home
built on family land along Howard Street.

Leevella
& Marvin Howard:
(Click on photo to view a larger image.)

In 1953 Marvin and Leevella moved back home to their beloved island.

Marvin was a self-taught “Renaissance man” who took
an
active interest in his community. He periodically wrote newspaper
articles and letters to the editor, and was a prolific reader. One of
his favorite books was the 1939 novel “How Green Was My
Valley,” by Richard Llewellyn, which tells the story of a
Welsh
family and the struggles in their mining community. One of the
book’s characters is a “rough but gentle”
prizefighter named Dai Bando.

Soon after moving back to Ocracoke Marvin acquired a Water Spaniel who
became his constant companion and hunting partner. Inspired by
Llewellyn’s character, Marvin named his dog Diabando. Marvin
delighted in showcasing Diabando’s talents by having him
perform
various tricks, including rolling over on command and jumping through
hoops. Along the shore of Silver Lake Diabando often entertained
onlookers by diving into the harbor and returning with clam shells
Marvin tossed off the dock, an indication of Diabando’s
talent as
a waterfowl retriever.

Marvin’s love of hunting and the outdoors is evident in an
article he wrote titled There’s Nothing Like the Glory of
November on the Banks. “As one feels the bite of the
blustery,
windy day, particularly if a hunter, the urge to take gun in hand, call
Rover or Brando or Nipper, and go a-hunting, is strong,”
wrote
Marvin. “It would not suffice alone to hunt birds, but rather
to
take in the wonders of autumn’s beauty among the woodlands,
the
salt grasses and the sand hills.”[3]

Diabando was a superb hunting dog, but his overenthusiasm for
retrieving led to tragedy. While hunting one blustery fall day Marvin
fired at a low-flying flock of ducks. Just as he squeezed the trigger
for a second shot Diabando leapt into the line of fire and was
killed.

Marvin was broken-hearted. He never acquired another dog.

Marvin Howard could be sentimental and deeply affected by life.
However, like most of his family, he also had an impish sense of humor,
and a penchant for good-natured fun.

One afternoon, after Leevella left the house to walk down the sandy
lane to attend a Ladies Missionary Society Meeting at the Methodist
Church Marvin went right to her closet. In a few minutes he had donned
one of her dresses, positioned a fancy Sunday hat on his head, and
draped an old purse over his arm. To everyone’s delight,
Marvin
joined the other ladies at their meeting, and even stayed for
refreshments.

But Marvin was never satisfied with just personal pranks. He was
gregarious, and quickly immersed himself in his community and church.
In 1953 he made a proposal at the Ocracoke Civic Club’s
Spring
Meeting. “Let’s have some fun,” he
announced, and
suggested adding a parade to the annual July 4th pony penning and
patriotic noontime service.

For many years the highlight of Ocracoke’s July 4th
celebration
was a mid-morning penning of the island’s wild ponies. On
July
3rd a half dozen young islanders would ride to Hatteras Inlet where
they
camped out for the night. Early the next morning they began rounding up
the scattered herds, each led by one stallion, driving several hundred
ponies the length of the island. The entire village was on hand to
witness the pony penning. Young boys who perched among the branches of
live oaks at the edge of the village were usually the first to announce
the arrival of the herds. Everyone stopped to watch as the horses
thundered down the sandy lanes and were driven into the corral. Once
penned, colts were branded and several of the horses were sold to
enthusiastic local and mainland buyers.

In 1953 a new tradition was
begun. The first “Queen of the Pony Penning” was
crowned.

A patriotic program and flag raising was held at the schoolhouse at
11:30 a.m.

In 1953, after their mid-day dinner, islanders gathered along the newly
paved concrete roads awaiting Ocracoke’s first annual July
4th
parade.

The quirky, homegrown parade was a huge success. For several years
Marvin, Lum Gaskill (dressed like Blackbeard the Pirate), and others
led the parade riding Banker stallions. World War II era Dodge
ambulances, Army surplus Jeeps, and other vehicles followed. Some were
decked out in red, white, and blue banners. Others sported tableaus
featuring hunting scenes, Indian villages, groups of local musicians,
and square dancers. Some participants rode on the hoods of their
vehicles, or balanced on the roofs. Most crowded into the stake body,
or hung on from the running boards. Costumes included outlandish hats,
Indian war bonnets, clown outfits, old-time bathing suits, and much
more.

July 4th
Parade:
(Click on photo to view a larger image.)

Although the Ocracoke Island July 4th Parade was discontinued after
several years, it was revived in the 1970s and has been a major
attraction on Independence Day ever since.

Marvin Howard was not content with just one annual event focused on a
national holiday and the island ponies. His father and grandfather had
both been accomplished Outer Banks equestrians, and Marvin was
determined to pass on his love of horses to the younger generation.

In May of 1954 Marvin organized Ocracoke Boy Scout Troop #290. Fourteen
teenagers signed up as original members, with Marvin Howard as
scoutmaster, and Kermit Robinson as assistant scoutmaster.

The newly organized Boy Scout Troop had an enthusiastic beginning. They
took their first trip in August, hiking 10 miles down the beach to
spend the night camping.

But Mr. Marvin, as the scouts called him, had a broader vision for his
scouts. Troop 290 would be a mounted troop, at the time the only
mounted Boy Scout Troop in the country. Each scout was required to earn
$50 to purchase one of the island’s wild ponies. But that was
just the beginning. The horses then had to be caught, penned, tamed,
and cared for…all by the scouts themselves.

Marvin
Howard, second from left, with Boy Scouts:
(Photo courtesy of the Outer Banks History Center. Click on photo to
view a larger image.)

As scout Lindsay Howard described it in a 1956
“Boy’s
Life” article, “These ponies are no easier to break
than a
western range pony. You even have a job lassoing one – if he
decides to take off into the ocean. These ponies have grown up next to
the sea, and are as much at home in water as on land.”

Breaking the ponies normally required two scouts, one to hold the horse
(usually blindfolded with a t-shirt), while the other slowly slipped on
a bridle, blanket and saddle. With more than a little trepidation the
scout then mounted his steed. After snorting, bucking, and trying every
trick to throw his rider, the pony finally tired and settled down.
Eventually horse and rider learned to trust and respect each other.

By the spring of 1955 the boys of Troop 290 were well advanced in
“scoutcraft.” Four were Tenderfoot Scouts. Others
were
studying hard to pass First Class Requirements, and the troop expected
to have six Explorers by mid-March.

Captain Marvin Howard was an inspiration to all of his scouts. The boys
often stopped by his house just to spend time with their scoutmaster.
He showed them how to tie square knots, sheet bends, and bowlines. He
demonstrated how to groom their ponies, and how to keep bridles and
reins supple. He taught them the values of fairness, honesty, and
courtesy.

And he told stories…stories of far-away places, of war, of
storms at sea, of people he’d met, of lessons he’d
learned.
Leevella understood Marvin and his commitment to his scouts, but she
made sure he kept his life in perspective. If the boys came by at
suppertime Leevella stood at the door. “Marvin
can’t come
out to play,” she’d announce.
“He’s going to
have his supper now.”

Marvin’s impact on the lives of his scouts is summed up by
former
scout Frank DeWayne Teeter. “I learned more in scouts than I
ever
did in school,” the island native and commercial fisherman
says.

The scouts’ first spring outing of 1955 was something of an
adventure. Eleven year old Lewis Tolleson described the camping trip:

“We met at Mr. Marvin’s house, ready to head for
the cattle
pen. When we had ridden our ponies as far as the Loop Shack, Mr. Marvin
remembered that he had forgotten his tent, so he had to go back for it.
We continued on our way and Mr. Marvin caught up with us at First
Hammocks. At Shad Hole we stopped to water our horses. At the Cow Pen
we found all of our equipment, which Mr. Charlie Ahman had brought up
there for us in his jeep.

“Tents up, it was time for a little chow. Lum Gaskill arrived
in
his jeep and brought apples which we shared with our ponies.

“He told us the wind was going to change, so we turned our
tents around in the opposite direction.

“At about three in the afternoon Van Henry, Sommers, and the
Cub
Scouts came down for a visit. Then we got supper and fed and watered
the horses.

“Capt. Marvin appointed those who were to stand watch every
two
hours, and we went to bed, but not to sleep. There was plenty of rain,
so much that Joe Ben and Rudy said they could swim in their tents.
Frank Teeter, George Lewis, and James Barrie went hunting for poor
geese and came back wet and freezing.

“We were up at daybreak. The weather had cleared some. We ate
breakfast and then fed our horses. Mr. Charlie came for our baggage at
ten, and we were on our way home. We had fun, and so did the horses,
climbing hills and jumping little shrubs. We got home about 12
o’clock, and were glad to be here.”

In June of 1955 Marvin yielded to a call to return to the sea. He
accepted the position of captain of his former dredge, the Chester
Harding, and sailed to Lake Maracaibo in northwestern
Venezuela. Lake
Maracaibo, with an area of more than 13,000 km² is actually a
brackish bay connected to the Gulf of Venezuela by the narrow and
shallow Tablazo Strait. The lake is located in the Maracaibo
Basin, a large sedimentary basin where prodigious oil reserves were
discovered in 1914. The shipping channel had been dredged previously,
and the Harding
was contracted to deepen the channel to allow
ocean-going vessels unlimited access to the oil reserves.

During that time Marvin’s thoughts were never far from home.
He
purchased a newly published children’s book, “Digby
the
Only Dog” by Ruth and Latrobe Carroll, which told the
fictionalized story of one Ocracoke dog, Digby, and the
island’s
numerous cats.

Ruth Latrobe’s illustrations of Ocracoke village scenes
brought
memories of home to the veteran sea captain. According to the
"Coastland
Times", September, 1955, “Capt. Howard took a temporary leave
of
absence and now after 3 months, he wishes he was back at Ocracoke with
his church, his Sunday School, his PTA, his Boy Scouts, the Civic Club,
and last but not least, his wife.” He wrote numerous letters
to
his family, his friends, and his scouts.

Marvin mailed “Digby the Only Dog” to his eleven
year old
granddaughter, with this inscription: “This book has been in
Maracaibo, Venezuela where a mixture of Races are as greatly
diversified as the Ponies, Geese, Chickens, Ducks and Cats and Dogs.
This book was flown back to the U.S.A. stopping at Montego Bay,
Jamaica. It is a Xmas present to a wonderful and sweet girl
‘Dally’ from Granddad. The scenes are of our Little
Home
Town – Ocracoke, NC. My love, Pop”

By the end of 1955 the deepened shipping channel allowed large oil
tankers to navigate into Lake Maracaibo. In just a few years Venezuela
was producing 15% of the world’s oil, accounting for more
than
90% of the country’s exports. As early as 1956 three quarters
of
Venezuela’s oil came from the Maracaibo Basin, the largest
oil
field in South America.

His task complete, Captain Howard brought the Chester Harding
back to the states, and settled again into his island community.

Winds of change had already begun impacting Ocracoke. In 1950 Hatteras
Island native, Frazier Peele, established a three-car private ferry
service across Hatteras Inlet. Although Peele built a more substantial
four-car ferry the next year, there was still no paved road the length
of Ocracoke Island. Travelers took their chances driving to the village
at low tide on the hard-packed sand.

When the Ocracoke Boy Scouts traveled to Hatteras for camping trips,
Jamborees, and other occasions they blindfolded their mounts before
leading them onto the ferry.

In 1957 the state of North Carolina bought Peele’s franchise,
built a two lane paved road to the inlet, and replaced the old wooden
ferry with converted World War II landing craft.

More change was coming the next year. The Cape Hatteras National
Seashore Park, a seventy mile long string of barrier islands off the
coast of North Carolina, was dedicated on April 24, 1958. All of
Ocracoke Island, with the exception of the village, was included in the
Park boundaries. Plans called for the removal of all livestock,
including wild horses.

Marvin Howard lobbied tirelessly to convince the National Park Service
to consider ways to keep the horses on the island. Eventually, in order
to protect motorists and the island’s wild horses, a remnant
herd
of Banker Ponies was corralled about seven miles from the village.

Change continued ever more rapidly. Ocracoke was quickly entering the
modern world. Tourists were discovering the island, ponies no longer
roamed free, and the scouts were growing up. The age of innocence was
coming to an end. Troop 290 would soon become just a memory.

In 1959 successful businessmen, Daniel, William, Alfred, and Leslie
Taylor, brothers from coastal North Carolina, began construction of the
Sea Level,
a sound-class ferry built to transport motorists from the
mainland town of Atlantic, North Carolina to Ocracoke. William T.
Skittleharp was the Sea
Level’s first captain when the operation
commenced on March 1, 1960. Exactly one year later the North
Carolina Highway Commission purchased the Sea Level, and the
mainland
terminal was moved to Cedar Island. Marvin Wyche Howard, still drawn to
the sea, became captain.

Several years later Marvin finally hung up his captain’s hat.
By
then most of the roads in the village had been paved, and islanders
were opening restaurants and building motels to accommodate the growing
influx of visitors. Most of Marvin’s scouts had graduated
from
high school, and many left the island to join the military or attend
college.

Marvin
with Grandson:
(Click on photo to view a larger image.)

Marvin continued to serve his church and his community, and then he
fell ill with cancer. He and Leevella moved to Winston-Salem to be with
their daughter Martha Dean and her family. Marvin died there, March 26,
1969. His body was brought back to Ocracoke and laid to rest in the
Community Cemetery. Leevella returned to Ocracoke for summers, and for
long visits back home on Howard Street. She died in 1982.

Marvin and Leevella’s graves lie under the shade of several
live
oaks. Inscribed on their single marker are the immortal words of Alfred
Lord Tennyson: “Sunset and evening star and one clear call
for me
and may there be no mourning [sic] of the bar when I put out to
sea.”